Wherever they had appeared they had been
looked upon as a curse and a pestilence, and with much reason.
Either unwilling or unable to devote themselves to any laborious or
useful occupation, they came like flights of wasps to prey upon the
fruits which their more industrious fellow-beings amassed by the
toil of their hands and the sweat of their foreheads; the natural
result being, that wherever they arrived, their fellow-creatures
banded themselves against them. Terrible laws were enacted soon
after their appearance in France, calculated to put a stop to their
frauds and dishonest propensities; wherever their hordes were
found, they were attacked by the incensed rustics or by the armed
hand of justice, and those who were not massacred on the spot, or
could not escape by flight, were, without a shadow of a trial,
either hanged on the next tree, or sent to serve for life in the
galleys; or if females or children, either scourged or mutilated.
The consequence of this severity, which, considering the manners
and spirit of the time, is scarcely to be wondered at, was the
speedy disappearance of the Gypsies from the soil of France.
Pages:
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80